Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia in the world, affecting over 2.5 million people in the United States alone. Ablation of cardiac tissue, in order to create scar tissue that poses an interruption in the path of the errant electrical impulses in the heart tissue, is a commonly performed procedure to treat cardiac arrhythmias. Such ablation may range from the ablation of a small area of heart tissue to a series of ablations forming a strategic placement of incisions in both atria to stop the conduction and formation of errant impulses.
Ablation has been achieved or suggested using a variety of techniques, such as freezing via cryogenic probe, heating via RF energy, surgical cutting and other techniques. As used here, “ablation” means the removal or destruction of the function of a body part, such as cardiac tissue, regardless of the apparatus or process used to carry out the ablation. Also, as used herein, “transmural” means through the wall or thickness, such as through the wall or thickness of a hollow organ or vessel.
Ablation of cardiac tissue may be carried out in an open surgical procedure, where the breastbone is divided and the surgeon has direct access to the heart, or through a minimally invasive route, such as between the ribs or via catheter that is introduced through a vein, and into the heart.
Prior to any ablation, the heart typically is electronically mapped to locate the point or points of tissue which are causing the arrhythmia. With minimally invasive procedures such as via a catheter, the catheter is directed to the aberrant tissue, and an electrode or cryogenic probe is placed in contact with the endocardial tissue. RF energy is delivered from the electrode to the tissue to heat and ablate the tissue (or the tissue may be frozen by the cryogenic probe), thus eliminating the source of the arrhythmia.
Common problems encountered in this procedure are difficulty in precisely locating the aberrant tissue, and complications related to the ablation of the tissue. Locating the area of tissue causing the arrhythmia often involves several hours of electrically “mapping” the inner surface of the heart using a variety of mapping catheters, and once the aberrant tissue is located, it is often difficult to position the catheter and the associated electrode or probe so that it is in contact with the desired tissue.
The application to the inside of the heart chamber of either RF energy or ultra-low temperature freezing also carries several risks and difficulties. It is very difficult to determine how much of the catheter electrode or cryogenic probe surface is in contact with the tissue since catheter electrodes and probes are cylindrical and the heart tissue cannot be visualized clearly with existing fluoroscopic technology. Further, because of the cylindrical shape, some of the exposed electrode or probe area will almost always be in contact with blood circulating in the heart, giving rise to a risk of clot formation.
Clot formation is almost always associated with RF energy or cryogenic delivery inside the heart because it is difficult to prevent the blood from being exposed to the electrode or probe surface. Some of the RF current flows through the blood between the electrode and the heart tissue and this blood is coagulated, or frozen when a cryogenic probe is used, possibly resulting in clot formation. When RF energy is applied, the temperature of the electrode is typically monitored so as to not exceed a preset level, but temperatures necessary to achieve tissue ablation almost always result in blood coagulum forming on the electrode.
Overheating or overcooling of tissue is also a major complication, because the temperature monitoring only gives the temperature of the electrode or probe, which is, respectively, being cooled or warmed on the outside by blood flow. The actual temperature of the tissue being ablated by the electrode or probe is usually considerably higher or lower than the electrode or probe temperature, and this can result in overheating, or even charring, of the tissue in the case of an RF electrode, or freezing of too much tissue by a cryogenic probe. Overheated or charred tissue can act as a locus for thrombus and clot formation, and over freezing can destroy more tissue than necessary.
It is also very difficult to achieve ablation of tissue deep within the heart wall. A recent study reported that to achieve a depth of ablation of 5 mm, it was necessary to ablate an area almost 8 mm wide in the endocardium. See, “Mechanism, Localization, and Cure of Atrial Arrhythmias Occurring After a New Intraoperative Endocardial Radiofrequency Ablation Procedure for Atrial Fibrillation,” Thomas, et al., J. Am. Coll. Cardiology, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2000. As the depth of penetration increases, the time, power, and temperature requirements increase, thus increasing the risk of thrombus formation.
In certain applications, it is desired to obtain a continuous line of ablated tissue in the endocardium. Using a discrete or point electrode or probe, the catheter must be “dragged” from point to-point to create a line, and frequently the line is not continuous. Multielectrode catheters have been developed which can be left in place, but continuity can still be difficult to achieve, and the lesions created can be quite wide.
Because of the risks of char and thrombus formation, RF energy, or any form of endocardial ablation, is rarely used on the left side of the heart, where a clot could cause a serious problem (e.g., stroke). Because of the physiology of the heart, it is also difficult to access certain areas of the left atrium via an endocardial, catheter-based approach.
Recently, epicardial ablation devices have been developed which apply RF or microwave energy to the outer wall of the heart to ablate tissue. These devices do not have the same risks concerning thrombus formation. However, it is still difficult to create long, continuous lesions, and it is difficult to achieve good depth of penetration without creating a large area of ablated tissue.
As noted above, other forms of energy have been used in ablation procedures, including ultrasound, cryogenic ablation, and microwave technology. When used from an endocardial approach, the limitations of all energy-based ablation technologies to date are the difficulty in achieving continuous transmural lesions, and minimizing unnecessary damage to endocardial tissue. Ultrasonic and RF energy endocardial balloon technology has been developed to create circumferential lesions around the individual pulmonary veins. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,740 to Lesh et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,938,660 and 5,814,028 to Swartz et al. However, this technology creates rather wide (greater than 5 mm) lesions which could lead to stenosis (narrowing) of the pulmonary veins. See, “Pulmonary Vein Stenosis after Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation,” Robbins, et al., Circulation, Vol. 98, pages 1769-1775, 1998. The large lesion area can also act as a locus point for thrombus formation. Additionally, there is no feedback to determine when full transmural ablation has been achieved. Cryogenic ablation has been attempted both endocardially and epicardially (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,733,280 to Avitall, 5,147,355 to Friedman et al., and 5,423,807 to Milder, and WO 98/17187, the latter disclosing an angled cryogenic probe, one arm of which is inserted into the interior of the heart through an opening in the heart wall that is hemostatically sealed around the arm by means of a suture or staples), but because of the time required to freeze tissue, and the delivery systems used, it is difficult to create a continuous line, and uniform transmurality is difficult to verify.
Published PCT applications WO 99/56644 and WO 99/56648 disclose an endocardial ablation catheter with a reference plate located on the epicardium to act as an indifferent electrode or backplate that is maintained at the reference level of the generator. Current flows either between the electrodes located on the catheter, or between the electrodes and the reference plate. It is important to note that this reference plate is essentially a monopolar reference pad. Consequently, this backplate is not intended to ablate tissue. Instead, the ablation begins at the electrodes within the endocardium, and travels through the heart tissue either to another endocardial electrode, or to the backplate. Tissue ablation proceeds from the endocardium outward to the epicardium. Other references disclose epicardial multielectrode devices that deliver either monopolar or bipolar energy to the outside surface of the heart.
It is important to note that all endocardial ablation devices that attempt to ablate tissue through the full thickness of the cardiac wall have a risk associated with damaging structures within or on the outer surface of the cardiac wall. As an example, if a catheter is delivering energy from the inside of the atrium to the outside, and a coronary artery, the esophagus, or other critical structure is in contact with the atrial wall, the structure can be damaged by the transfer of energy from within the heart to the structure. The coronary arteries, esophagus, aorta, pulmonary veins, and pulmonary artery are all structures that are in contact with the outer wall of the atrium, and could be damaged by energy transmitted through the atrial wall. Furthermore, when performing ablation on a beating heart, either endocardially, or epicardially, it is very difficult to stabilize the ablation element in one position relative to the moving heart tissue.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved method for making transmural ablations to heart tissue.
It is a related object to provide a method for making transmural ablation in heart tissue that minimizes unnecessary damage to the heart tissue.
It is a further object to provide a method for making transmural ablation in heart tissue that creates continuous lesions in a single step.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method to stabilize the ablation element relative to the tissue being ablated during a beating heart procedure.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved method for minimizing the amount of ablated tissue and maximizing current density.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method for rapidly creating a lesion around the pulmonary veins without excessive clamp time.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method for creating a series of lesions to isolate one or both pulmonary veins without stopping blood flow through the veins.